


Shattered

by writeinparadise (orphan_account)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Breaking Up & Making Up, Cheating, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Hurt Lance (Voltron), Implied/Referenced Cheating, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Keith (Voltron) is a Mess, Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, M/M, Miscommunication, Misunderstandings, Sad with a Happy Ending, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Hatred
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-10
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2020-04-23 23:13:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19160953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/writeinparadise
Summary: “Would it make you happy if I left?” Lance struggled to get the words out. As soon as he said it and glanced at Keith’s face, he knew the answer.“Yes.”Lance’s heart did more than break this time. It shattered.A misunderstanding threatens to break Keith and Lance apart, but both are miserable without each other. Will they get back together again, or will they live out their lives as one half of a whole?Or: Keith thinks Lance is cheating on him, but Lance is just trying to be a good friend.





	1. Breakup

“I regret everything that happened between us, McClain. I never want to see you again.” 

Torrents of tears ran down Keith’s cheeks, unabridged. Lance felt his heart break. He would never cause Keith pain, he had no idea what had happened.

“W-wait, Keith. This has to be a misunderstanding, I just don’t understand—”

“I trusted you and you ruined that. If you don’t want me to call the police right now, you have to leave,” Keith said through clenched teeth. “It’s all your fault.”

Lance had to make Keith understand, had to know what was going on. His head spun with emotion, clambering for something to say. Black spots rimmed the sides of his vision, he couldn’t get enough air. 

He wanted to laugh. Every time, it was because it wasn’t enough. Not enough patience. Not enough understanding. Not enough love. Not enough air.

That was the thing about Keith, if you fell in love with him, he was just as important as air, if not more so. Keith was the only thing keeping Lance going, the thing that stopped him from ending it here and now. Somehow he had ruined that.

If this was what Keith truly wanted, he had to respect that, no matter how much pain it caused him. As selfish as it was, he wouldn’t let his best friend and lover suffer for his sake. 

“Would it make you happy if I left?” Lance struggled to get the words out. As soon as he said it and glanced at Keith’s face, he knew the answer.

“Yes.”

Lance’s heart did more than break this time. It shattered.

Still, despite the burning behind his eyes or the unsteady pulse of his heart, he refused to let any emotions show. He was so close to losing it but held on for Keith. No matter what Keith thought, he didn’t want to make this harder on him. If that meant bottling up his emotions until he felt like dying, then so be it.

It was about two hours later, and he was still crying in the car. Yes, he could walk the few steps up to Hunk’s front door, ask him if he could come in, and cry in his guest room, but where’s the fun in that? Besides, he was apparently already too much of a bother as he is.

A knock sounded on the car window, reverberating in the empty car. Lance looked up to see Hunk’s concerned face peering down at him.

“Lance, are you okay?” Hunk was always too good for the world, too good to deal with someone like Lance.

“Can I stay here for a while?” Lance winced while sounding out the words. He had finally moved in with Keith but considering recent circumstances, that wasn’t going to work.

“Sure, but we’re talking in the morning.” With that, Hunk led Lance into his home and shut the door behind him. It shouldn’t have mattered to him, but it hurt. It was just another reminder of everything he had left behind.

Everything reminded him of Keith, or rather the lack of him. The strange bed, the different wallpaper, nothing was simple anymore. Even brushing his teeth in a different bathroom had brought him to tears, caused Hunk to come into the guest room and ask him if everything was okay.

Granted, it was only about three hours after the fight they had, but it didn’t mean that he would be getting any sleep tonight. Anyway, he doubted he’d have a good night sleep for a while.

Maybe he shouldn’t have been drinking into the night, the burn of whiskey still on his tongue, but there’s a lot of things he shouldn’t have done but did anyway. This mistake wouldn’t make a dent.

In the morning, he’d regret everything. Not drinking, but what he did while drinking. Alone and desperate, there was only one thing he could do. He pulled out his phone and texted Keith.

_I love you_

Keith, on the other hand, was holding up quite fine. Sure, he had thrown up a few times, looked through all their photo albums, and possibly grabbed all of Lance’s sweatshirts and thrown them haphazardly on the bed, but he was fine. He was sure of it. He was coping.

It just didn’t add up. There was no reason for Lance to cheat, he seemed perfectly faithful when he met him, back in primary school. Sure, he had flirted a lot through his, but it had meant nothing at the time…right?

Angry tears sprung at Keith’s eyes. How dare he cheat on him after everything? The worse part was that he didn’t know when it had started, when this girl named Shay lit up Lance’s phone with a _hello babe_. Gosh, he wouldn’t even know if she was the only one.

Maybe there were more people over the course of their one-year relationship. With Lance’s level of secrecy, it was definitely possible. He was hiding something over the past few years of their relationship, but now he finally knows what it was.

It wasn’t fair for Lance to ruin everything. They were going to get engaged, have a nice honeymoon, get married—now it was all ruined. Every love story Keith had ever witnessed had gone up in flames, but he had believed in theirs. 

Keith laughed mirthlessly. So much for losing their virginities together, to having kids together, to getting old togeth— 

His phone pinged. Keith knew it was Lance, after all, who else could it be? Maybe he was masochistic or something, but instead of silencing his phone and binge-watching another TV show, he opened the text.

_I love you_

It was written there, plain as day, as if taunting him. Keith hated the words. However, the next ones he typed would be ones he would regret for the rest of his life.

_Nice joke. Fuck off._

Reading his words again, Keith winced. It was harsh, but c’mon, he deserved it. If this was some kind of cheap attempt to make him feel guilty, then it wouldn’t work. 

He wouldn’t be hurt by Lance McClain again.


	2. Misunderstandings Ensue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance is sad and Keith, well he's finding stuff out...

To say Lance was sad, or even depressed, was an understatement. If you ask him, or anyone who knows him (excluding Keith for the moment), they would say that he was completely and utterly broken.

You know, he was fine after the fight. Okay, maybe that was a lie, but he was able to exist. Sure, it was nothing compared to actually living, but he had hope of putting himself together. Eventually.

Of course, Drunk Lance had plenty of other solutions to help remedy the situation (none of which Sober Lance approved of). Well, imagine Sober Lance’s reaction at that one blue bubble that had effectively decimated any possibility of him ever moving on.

He had woken up hopeful once he saw that he had one new notification from Keith, affectionally nicknamed Mulletman <3 in his contacts. After all, Lance still didn’t know what had happened to piss off Keith so royally.

Naturally, he had geared himself up for some good news. Maybe his secret love confession had worked after all, and Keith was suddenly and irrevocably in love with Lance. Well, he didn’t actually believe that, but at least it would be better than those four words permanently etched into his mind. 

_Nice joke. Fuck off._

What had that meant? Lance was 100% sure that Keith knew that he did, so he had never actually said it before the argument. Besides, it wasn’t like Lance would joke about something like this. Yes, he might be a flirt, but heck if he wasn’t loyal.

This brings him to the second part of the message, the one basically telling him to get lost. Obviously, Lance had done something wrong, but he didn’t know what.

So whatever Lance had done was bad enough for Keith to A) believe Lance didn’t love him and B) tell Lance to get out of his life after spending most of his waking hours with him. It just didn’t add up.

Besides him, Hunk’s house was completely empty, having gone to work earlier in the day. Right, work. It was fine, Lance had a few vacation hours to use, although he had planned to use them with Keith for their anniversary…

Was he just overanalyzing this? Maybe Keith just didn’t want to be with someone like him, someone so broken and flawed. The fight was probably just an easier way to break up with him. There was nothing else that Lance had done that would make Keith so mad at him.

“Hey Lance, are you sure you’re okay?” Hunk said, arriving home from the bakery. Lance hadn’t noticed that it was so late, but he practically just got dumped by the one person he would ever love, so he guessed that warranted time to wallow in self-pity.

“Yeah, I guess.” Shuffling onto his side, he started into the cushions of the couch. “I just don’t want to talk about it right now.” 

Hunk was the only person who had known what happened, but this recent development…well, he wouldn’t share with Hunk unless Keith was safely out of his vicinity. Despite him practically breaking his heart, he wouldn’t want Keith in a coma.

“I’m going out with Shay tonight to that pizza place you recommended, but we are spending all day tomorrow together.” 

“Fine.” With that, Lance snuggled even closer to the side of the couch, trying to hide from everything. It was just so hard.

To Keith’s chagrin, Shiro had decided to take Keith out to a restaurant, claiming that it would help him “get better from whatever had made him so sad lately.” Sorry Shiro, but Keith doubted that would help him at all. At least he got free food out of the inconvenience.

All he wanted was some time for himself to think about what had happened, maybe eat piles of junk food. Going out of the house was not part of this equation.

With a disgruntled huff, he walked into the quaint shop with Shiro, the smell of baking bread already engulfing them. It seemed like a nice enough place, a local business someone like Lance would love.

They took two seats next to a couple already talking animatedly over their food. He couldn’t help but try to listen to their conversation.

“Keith? What are you getting?” Shiro said. “I’ll go put your order in.”

“Um, I’ll get a slice of pepperoni?” 

“Sounds good.” With that, Shiro stood, walking up to the counter.

Honestly, Keith just wanted to be at home, mourning over the loss of his relationship. If anything, the only other thing he wanted was an explanation. Considering that the second one would require him talking to Lance, which was a definite no, it looked like he wouldn’t be getting one for a while.

Or, maybe not. Lance made and kept friends easily, one aspect that was sorely different than Keith. The couple next to him surely knew something about him with how many times they had said Lance’s name from the time Shiro and he had arrived.

“Yeah, so Lance was really broken up about it,” the man said from next to him. “It’s weird, he had said that they’d be in love forever.”

The woman responded.“Does he know what happened between them? Honestly, if his ex didn’t leave an explanation, he’s kinda a douchebag.” Oh shit, were they talking about him now? Well lady, if the love of your life cheated on you, then you wouldn’t want to wait around to hear the excuses.

“Yeah, that’s one thing I agree with for sure,” he said with a chuckle. “Man, I know for sure that Lance didn’t do anything wrong. He was up crying all night, and it definitely wasn’t out of guilt.”

That struck him as odd. Whoever this was must be close to him to know him this well, probably the one Lance was living with. Once you knew him, you could tell if Lance felt guilty. If Lance had felt guilty for something he had nothing to do with, then why hadn’t he felt guilty for cheating on him?

“So Shay, I might—” Wait, what? Her name was Shay? It could’ve been a coincidence, but it wasn’t like Shay was a common name.

“Keith, are you okay?” Shiro sat back down with their food. “You seem lost in space.”

“Yeah, whatever.” He was about to tune back into their conversation but the couple had already left. Something wasn’t right. Standing up, he took off running.

“Dude, what the heck.” Shiro sighed. You never know with Keith.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so overwhelmed by the support on the last chapter. You guys are amazing!! Thanks so much for sticking with me!
> 
> As always, please feel free to leave comments about anything! All comments are welcome (and encouraged ;) ).


	3. Confrontation

“Hey, you guys, over here,” Keith said, voice breathless from running. He just needed to know what had happened earlier. It could've been a coincidence, but that didn’t happen to people like him. 

“Excuse me, sir,” the man said, “but are you lost?”

“Umm, can I just please get your name? Sorry, but I really need it.”

The two shared a quick glance. Keith didn’t blame them, he didn’t know what he was saying either. If he were either one of them, he would have already walked away from him by now. Luckily for him, they were willing to oblige.

“Sure, it’s Hunk. I’ll just be on my way, I have somewhere to be…”

“Yeah sure, thanks a lot,” Keith said, still shocked. 

So this was the friend that Lance always wanted Keith to meet, but had declined with every invite. At the time, he had felt bad about it, but he’d put it off until next time when he had further developed his social skills. However, it was unlikely that the conversation would ever happen.

He watched their shadows retreat down the street. This made absolutely no sense. From what he could tell already, Hunk and Shay were honest people, and there would be no reason for Lance to cheat on him with his best friend’s girlfriend. 

Besides, Lance couldn’t keep a secret to save his life, one of the reasons he had been so shocked when he had found out that Lance was cheating on him. It just wasn’t something that he’d do.

At this point, he didn’t know who or what was in the wrong. There were certain things wrong with the way he had left everything, and they were just starting to come to light.

Perhaps everything could’ve been fixed if he had talked to Lance. Sure, maybe he did cheat on him, but there was looking to a higher possibility that he’d hadn’t. Either way things turned out, he knew that one thing was for sure; he and Lance were over.

Lance wouldn’t want to be stuck with someone who had so little trust in him if he hadn’t cheated, and there was no way in hell that Keith would forgive himself. It was all just a mess, and the worst part was that he had no idea whose fault it was.

Keith sank to the floor, threading his hands through his hair. He was so mad he could just scream, but the problem was that he didn’t even know what to be angry about. Well, he knew what he was angry about but not what to get angry at.

Anyways, anything he’d do from now on is pointless, so why bother? Keith should just go back to the restaurant, find Shiro, and spend the next few years moping around.

But he just couldn’t do that. If he was in the wrong, he had to make this right. It wouldn’t be fair just to leave Lance hanging like that.

And if it still turned out to be Lance’s fault, then you could be sure that he would still be getting some answers. In the back of his mind, he doubted that Lance had actually done something that despicable. To be fair, he had a reputation for jumping to conclusions and his past trust issues didn’t help any.

With that, Keith had a plan in mind. After taking a few deep breaths, he picked himself back up and headed back where he came from.

 

“Hey buddy, you should really eat something.” Hunk’s voice floated from somewhere in the house, muffled and metallic, but still utterly too loud.

Lance groaned. “Dude, I appreciate your help and everything, but I’ll be okay.”

The sound of footsteps grew nearer. Hunk, now having arrived at his destination, creaked open Lance’s door.

“I’m going to leave this food here, and it better be gone in three hours. And dude, sorry to say but you are so not okay.”

“I’m okay with that,” he said, flinging himself back onto his bed dramatically to prove his point. Lance winced. Probably wasn’t the best idea after not having moved from his bed in forever.

He sighed. Everything had gone so wrong in just a blink of an eye. Past Lance wouldn’t know that he’d be weeping in a few weeks, confused and Keithless. It sucked big time.

Well, he should at least stay alive long enough to question Keith on what happened. If he was going to get left in the dust, then he wanted to know why.

A sudden ping sounded from the center of the room and Lance looked up, confused. It wasn’t Pidge’s classic sci-fi notification, and it certainly couldn’t be Hunk (unless he had suddenly discovered a penchant for texting a person a room away.) Nor could it be another one of his friends—he had ringtones for all of them. 

He didn’t allow himself to think further than that. Who knows, it could be a scam call, his number neighbor, anyone except for him. Taking a deep breath in, he reached for his phone, a slight wince on his face all the while.

His face immediately paled as he saw the number. Fuck, he should have blocked him.

There, lit up in an inconspicuous green bubble, was a text from none other than Keith himself.

_Hey, it’s Keith. I want to talk._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ripp it's been so long since I've updated. I know it's no excuse, but life's been really unpredictable (and my mental health hasn't been doing the best either.) Thank you guys so much for your support, and feel free to comment anything below. I'm going to take a nap now and probably regret everything I just wrote, but at least I finally got it all out.


	4. Arguments and Understandings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance and Keith argue and lines are crossed, but all works out in the end.

I want to talk? Who did Keith think he was, upending his entire life based on a whim? It was just like him, abrupt, passionate, and hot-tempered. God, Lance hated him so much right now. It was just his luck that those were the exact things that had made him fall in love with Keith.

He considered the message. If Keith wanted to talk, so be it. Picking up the phone, Lance typed out a message, hands shaking all the while.

_Come to my house. You know where it is._

He took a deep breath, preparing himself for what was going to come. Grabbing his keys, he rushed out the door. Before the door shut, he called out to Hunk.

“Hunk, I’m going home.”

 

Keith was surprised at the fast reply, but he should’ve known. Lance was petty, but not when it came to important things. A pang went through his heart. When would he stop being important to Lance?

No, he shouldn’t he hurting. After all, it was all Lance’s fault. But it was just the way Lance phrased it, as if he would forget where Lance lived after years together. No matter how many years went by, Keith was sure he would never forget the place.

He didn’t register the drive to Lance’s place, but it was probably for the better; nerves would make the situation worse. By now, his body was on autopilot, marching up to the door and knocking three times. As he waited, his limbs trembled and shook, black spots appearing at the edges of his vision. Great, now he was nervous.

The door opened after a few more moments, Lance peeking his head outside. He was definitely different; he was skinny enough before but now he was frail enough for concern. Dark circles adorned his eyes. It couldn’t have been more than a few days, but he had changed so much.

“How are y—”

“You should get inside.” Lance’s tone held no room for argument. 

Glancing around the room, he found it unchanged, as if the past few days didn’t happen. He walked around, caressing his hand over the walls and furniture. His sweater was still on the couch from the last time he was over. It was cleaner than he expected.

“Nothing’s changed?” he said. A part of him wished that he’d find broken plates or scratched wood, anything to see that Lance still cared. 

“I stayed at Hunk’s place for a while.” Lance sat down on the sofa, urging Keith to do the same.

“Oh.” Keith remained standing. “How have you been?” He shifted from leg to leg, feeling out of place. When had that happened?

Lance’s eyes narrowed, pinning him down where he stood. “No fuck that shit, we aren’t going to start like this. Why did you leave?”

His fists clenched as tears sprung to his eyes. Keith was never one to hold back emotions, especially at times like this. However, he knew he would end up regretting what he said at the end.

“You know why,” he said. “I hope that you think of me whenever you fuck someone else.”

If Keith was a total stranger, he wouldn’t have noticed Lance’s slight flinch. Of course, if Keith was smarter, he would’ve stopped what came out his mouth next.

“Dating you was a mistake, I should’ve known better.” Keith laughed without mirth, watching with sick glee as he tore Lance down with his words. “Of course, I wouldn’t have thought someone like you would be smart enough to manipulate me.”

As he watched tears stream down Lance’s face, he only grew angrier. Damn Lance and him being such a pretty crier as if his lies didn’t cause this situation in the first place. They could have had everything.

“I don’t understand why you think I’m cheating on you,” Lance said, his voice breaking in the middle. With his hair disheveled and eyes red, he looked like a mess.

“I have proof.” Keith sneered at Lance from where he stood. “Some girl texted you, right. Calling you babe and everything like that.”

“I have no clue what you mean.” It was true; Lance’s eyes were swirling with confusion, eyebrows furrowed closely together as the light glittered off tear tracks. In comparison to how social he was, Lance was always a terrible liar; there was no way he could be saying anything but the truth.

Keith gritted his teeth in frustration. “You know, Shelly or Shay or whatever?”

` For a moment, everything was silent. Then, Lance started laughing. 

“I can’t believe it, I can’t fucking believe it. Literally all this time I was wondering what was wrong and it turned out that you thought I was cheating on you with Shay of all people.”

“So—”

“She is dating Hunk, Keith. I was trying to set them up, you know, be a good friend. I guess you wouldn’t know.”

“I’m—”

“It’s just your damn trust issues that get in the way every single time.” Lance was pacing around the room by now, making marks on the carpet. “You know what Keith? I wish I had never dated you too.” 

By now Keith’s insides were twisting and turning, he felt like he was on fire. This was worse than everything that he could’ve imagined; it like he was being burned from the inside out. Something was clenching around his heart, and he couldn’t breathe. Wet tears poured from his eyes as he slumped to the ground. Was this what it felt like to die?

He pulled the hood of his sweatshirt up, tying the strings around his neck as he tried to control his breaths. Oh god, how badly did he mess up? It was easier to deal with everything when he thought that Lance was the one at fault, but now? Keith couldn’t even comprehend the magnitude of what he had done. Maybe he did have trust issues, did he even deserve to be loved? Not by someone like Lance at least. But without Lance, was it even worth it to live? And now that he’s lost him, should he even try?

Warm hands slowly untied the strings around his neck as little teardrops fell on top of his head. He looked up to see Lance’s face, full of something akin to a terrible, yet beautiful mixture of hope and horror. Had he said everything out loud?

Lance knelt down to where he was, holding Keith’s head in his hands. This was it; this was the only man he would ever love. 

“I didn’t know you felt that way,” Lance said, voice trembling. “I’m so sorry, I know what I said crossed so many lines but—”

“I’m sorry too.” Keith could hardly get the words out because he was shaking so hard. “It’s not enough, I know—”

“It’s fine,” Lance said, a soft smile on his face. He held out his hand, waiting for Keith to grab it. Together, they walked towards the bedroom.

Keith breathed in the scent of Lance. “I’ve missed you so much, you don’t understand.”

Lance grinned. “Maybe I do.” He snuggled closer to Keith’s body, draping an arm over him. “You know we still have to talk about this, right?”

“Yeah, I know. But that can wait until morning.” Keith stared into Lance’s eyes, running his hand through his hair. They fell asleep to the sound of each other’s heartbeats, and the knowledge that no matter what would happen, they would get through it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, I know I've been missing for a while *laughs in writer's block* but I'm back again. After finishing this chapter I got a twitter @writeinparadise and a tumblr with the same name so you guys can yell at me if you want. I'll follow back!
> 
> This chapter seems like a conclusion so maybe I'll end it here if you guys want. As always, comments are my fuel (selfish, I know) so please leave some, even if it's criticism. Thank you guys so much for reading as always!


	5. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Klance talks, and all is well.

The sun seeped through the blinds as Keith woke up the next morning. He glanced at the spot next to him, only to find it empty. Cursing, he lifted up the blankets as if he’d find Lance there. What if he had really left after all?

Lance walked in, holding two steaming cups of coffee before setting it down on the nightstand. Shaking his head, he went to sit near Keith.

“I’m here, you dumbass,” he said fondly. “Don’t worry, I wouldn’t just leave like that.”

Keith sighed. “Sorry, I just thought you’d actually leave for once.” His eyes still darted around the room, like he was unsure if it was real. “One thing is for sure, you can’t possibly forget everything I said yesterday.” He looked away, ashamed.

“You know, I can’t,” Lance said. “But I can forgive,” he added on, after seeing Keith’s panicked face. “There are only a few things I wouldn’t forgive you for, you know? I promise you, I’m not going anywhere soon.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s true,” he said. “I don’t know why, but I always feel like you are going to up and leave one day.” 

Lance pushed Keith down on the bed, laying on top of him. “I think you are probably going to need some help.”

“Probably,” Keith said in response. They laid there for a few moments. 

“That doesn’t excuse the things I said though,” Lance said. “I shouldn’t have said you had trust issues or anything like that.”

Keith grinned. “It wasn’t like it wasn’t true.”

Lance sighed. “But still…” 

“I get what you mean,” Keith said. “At least we have a lifetime to make it up to each other.”

“I bet you’ll spend a lot of that time on your knees,” Lance said, wiggling his eyebrows.

Keith slapped Lance lightly. “Eww, that’s gross.”

“You’re gross.”

“You love me.”

“That’s true.” Lance kissed the tip of Keith’s nose and hopped out of bed. 

“Come on! It’s time to spend our lives together.” Hand in hand, they walked out the door, grins stretched wide across their faces. It felt like a new beginning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is probably the saddest I've ever been writing and it's because I don't want this fic to end. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the journey, and feel free to let me know how I'm doing in the comments. I am planning to start another Voltron fic soon! Thank you guys so much for all the support and motivation you have given me, I honestly can't put it into words.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, and thanks so much for reading! Let me know if you want to see more of this fic (or if I should end it here). Comments really do help me stay motivated (as selfish as it seems) and I would love to hear your thoughts. Constructive criticism, things I should do in the future, etc. feel free to comment! Even if it's about how your day is going, I'd still love to hear it!


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